1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to an image forming apparatus in which a plurality of recording media are continuously conveyed, for example, printers, facsimiles, copiers, and multifunctional machines including functions of printer, facsimile, and copier, and also relates to a recording medium conveyance control method, and computer program product thereof.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A conventional image forming apparatus includes a sheet storage part, a sheet feed and conveyance part, a registration part, an image formation part, and a sheet ejecting part. In the registration part, a sheet serving as a recording medium is corrected in its conveyance direction when the sheet is pushed into a nip between a pair of registration rollers with the registration rollers stopped. Thus, conveyance of the sheet is stopped once while its conveyance direction is corrected, after which conveyance is restarted at image transfer at a downstream position for accurate positioning of the image on the sheet. The sheet feeding and conveyance part continuously feeds sheets from the sheet storage part without waiting for image formation on the fed sheet for increasing a number of output sheets per unit of time.
In one example of a conventional image forming apparatus, to prevent a following sheet from catching up with the sheet stopped at the registration part, conveyance of the following sheet is stopped when the preceding sheet is stopped at the registration part. The conveyance of the following sheet is then restarted when conveyance of the sheet at the registration part is restarted.
At the same time, there is a continuing demand for increased productivity, which in turn necessitates that an interval between continuously fed sheets fed to the image formation part needs to be shortened.
Accordingly, in another example of a conventional image forming apparatus, in an effort to shorten the interval between continuously fed sheets, the following sheet is conveyed at a faster speed than the preceding sheet during a given time, thus shortening the interval between the preceding sheet and the following sheet and improving productivity.
The interval between the preceding sheet and the following sheet may be shortened still more effectively when the following sheet is conveyed while the preceding sheet is stopped at the registration part.